Wolfowitz on Warming

Joining the chorus of no-longer-skeptical about global warming, World Bank chief (and former Bush administration Pentagon official) Paul Wolfowitz tells a bank conference on the subject in Washington today: “We are seeing today an emerging global consensus that we need to do something about climate change, that we need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and that we need to do this sooner, rather than later.”

What to do about it? Kill two birds with one lump of coal, he says. “Whatever framework emerges for reducing carbon emissions, it should generate significant investment resources, to help developing countries grow while improving conservation, using energy more efficiently and reducing the environmental impact.”

Wolfowitz notes that UK Environment Secretary David Miliband suggests that carbon trading could generate $200 billion a year, half of which would go to the developing world.

“Some people may say that $100 billion is too much,” the World Bank president says. “Maybe….as big as those numbers are, they’re dwarfed by the money we’re spending every year just on oil, not to mention other fossil fuels. Compared to the annual world bill for oil of $1.5 trillion, $100 billion is significant, but it’s still only 7%.”

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